4A girls tourney: Warriors get by Knights in OT

ANCHORAGE — Earlier this month the Wasilla Warriors beat the Colony Knights in the Northern Lights Conference girls’ championship game for the second straight year.

When the state tournament brackets were seeded, Wasilla drew Colony for the second straight year.

But thanks to a late Wasilla effort in its first-round state tournament game against Colony Thursday, that’s where the trends end. Last season, Wasilla watched Colony celebrate the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. But Thursday, the Warriors outscored Colony 7-2 during an extra period to grab a 46-41victory over the Knights in the 2016 ASAA/First National Bank 4A State Basketball Championships at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Eighth-seeded Colony chipped away at a late Wasilla lead, and had one final heave in regulation to try to knock off the top-seeded Warriors. Colony’s Alex Carlton knocked down a three-pointer with just about a minute left in regulation, and Paige Cleary hit a floater along the base line to tie the score at 39 with 30 seconds left. Chase Stephens had a final chance, with a half-court attempt at the buzzer.

It all gave the Warriors a case of déjà vu.

“When Chase shot that half-court shot, I was like, this better not go in,” Wasilla junior McKenna Dinkel said after the Wasilla win.

Thursday marked the fourth meeting of the season between the Valley rivals, and the fourth win of the season for the Warriors.

And the most difficult.

“It’s pretty hard. They know how we play,” Dinkel said of facing a rival four times in a season.

In the NLC title game in early March, Wasilla used a big second half to score a 49-35 victory over the Knights.

But things were different Thursday.

“Some of our plays they were stopping more than when we played them at regions. They’re a great defensive team,” Dinkel said.

With a tenacious defensive effort, Colony held Wasilla to 30 percent shooting, 16 of 52 from the floor and 1 of 10 from behind the arc. But Wasilla was also strong on the defensive side, holding Colony to 37 percent shooting while forcing 20 turnovers.

“Our coach always tells us, if our shots are not falling on offense, we need to be playing better defense, and our shots will fall eventually,” Dinkel said. “We really missed a lot of shots thought so that was rough.”

Wasilla’s lone three-pointer of the game came at a pivotal moment in overtime. Freshman Olivia Davies knocked down a three-pointer with 2:41 left in overtime to give Wasilla a 42-39 advantage. It was the only field goal by either team in the four-minute tiebreaker.

Wasilla’s Kaylyn Kelly and Azlynn Brandenburg were a combined 4 for 4 at the free throw line during the final 1:16 of overtime to cement the win for the Warriors.

“It was tough. The kids did a good job of sticking together and persevering. Survive and advance, baby,” Wasilla head coach Jeannie Hebert-Truax said with a smile after the win.

Hebert-Truax wasn’t surprised to see Colony put up such a fight.

“One thing about Colony. They never give up. They just keep going, keep going, keep going,” Hebert-Truax said.

Now, the Warriors need to look ahead to the 4A state semifinals, where they will face fifth-seeded West Valley Friday at 7:15 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center.

“We struggled offensively making baskets, making free throws. Hopefully we got that out of our system,” Hebert-Truax said.

Wasilla played West Valley three times during the regular season, and beat the Wolfpack twice. West Valley did clip Wasilla 55-49 at Wasilla High in February. That defeat marked Wasilla’s only loss against a team from Alaska this season. Wasilla’s only other loss came against a team from Oklahoma in a tournament in Florida in December of 2015.

Dinkel led Wasilla with a game-high 13 points and eight rebounds during the win over Colony. Davies and Leya DePriest added eight points each.

Clary and Carlton collected 11 points each for the Knights. Chase Stephens and Amanda Smith added eight each.

Colony will play East Anchorage Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the consolation semifinals.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Wasilla 46, Colony 41 OT

4A state quarterfinals

Thursday, Anchorage

Colony 7-7-14-11-2—41

Wasilla 11-11-8-9-7—46

Colony (41) — Duguid 1 0-0 3, A. Smith 3 2-3 8, Clary 4 3-6 11, Stephens 2 3-4 8, Carlton 4 1-3 11; Totals: 14 9-18 46.

Wasilla (46) — Kelly 1 2-2 4, Davies 2 3-4 8, Lindeman 2 0-0 4, Brandenburg 1 3-6 5, Dinkel 5 3-7 13, DePriest 3 2-4 8; Totals: 16 13-25 46.